Are You Limiting Your Right to Sue?

Check your Auto-Insurance policy for Verbal Threshold. Under New Jersey law, a person who simply fails to indicate their insurance preference is automatically assigned the Verbal Threshold limitation on lawsuits. This limitation severely affects an injured person’s ability to seek just compensation for injuries resulting from an auto accident. In fact, under the holding of Oswin v Shaw, a plaintiff who elects Verbal Threshold is required to demonstrate, without regard to medical expenses, that his injury fits within one of the recognized categories under the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act, or “AICRA” for short.

Under AICRA, the law states that, damages for non-economic losses must stem from bodily injury arising from the use, ownership, operation or maintenance of an automobile in New Jersey that results from one of the following: (1) death; (2) dismemberment; (3) significant disfigurement of scarring; (4) displacement fractures; (5) loss of a fetus; (6) a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability

Further, a person who elects Verbal Threshold must also satisfy the tort option provisions contained within New Jersey Statute 39:6A-8(a). This statute indicates that, by law, an injured plaintiff must submit a physician’s certification. This certification requires a doctor to state, based on objective clinical evidence and under penalty of perjury, that the injured plaintiff has sustained an injury that is included in one of the above six (6) statutory categories.

As, you can imagine, selection of the Verbal Threshold policy will vastly effect an injured person’s ability to recover for a wrongly sustained injury. Therefore, protect your rights and the rights of those covered under your policy by reviewing your policy today!

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